Embodiment of Scarlet Devil

Touhou Koumakyou ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. (Japanese: 東方紅魔郷 〜 the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil., Hepburn: Tōhō Kōmakyō, lit. "Eastern Lands of the Scarlet Devil") is a vertical scrolling shooter and the sixth official game of the Touhou Project series. It is the first to be released for the Windows operating system, and the first by Team Shanghai Alice. All games before Embodiment of Scarlet Devil were made for the PC-98 series of computers and were released by Amusement Makers. The move to Windows allowed for Embodiment of Scarlet Devil to reach a much wider audience, and it remains one of the most popular Touhou games to date.

Embodiment of Scarlet Devil
Developer(s)Team Shanghai Alice
Publisher(s)Team Shanghai Alice
SeriesTouhou Project
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
ReleaseAugust 11, 2002 (Comiket 62)
Genre(s)Vertical danmaku scrolling shooter
Mode(s)Single-player

Gameplay
Main article: Touhou Project § Gameplay

Embodiment of Scarlet Devil is a vertical scrolling shooter, in which the player shoots enemies who come from the top of the screen, while dodging their attacks. Bosses appear in each of the game's stages, and as the player advances, the stages get more difficult, with enemies attacking with progressively large amounts of bullets. The player's main attack (shot) does a weak amount of damage, but they can enter focus mode, which will concentrate the shot into a much tighter area, giving improved damage, especially against bosses. Focus mode will also slow the player character, making it easier to dodge enemy attacks. The player has the option to use bombs, which will grant temporary invulnerability, clear the screen of enemy bullets, and deal immense damage, but the player has a limited supply of bombs, meaning they must be used cautiously. If the player is hit by an enemy bullet, and uses a bomb within a six frame window, they can avoid death, a technique known as deathbombing. Unique to Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, the amount of time in which a player can perform a deathbomb is decreased each time it is successfully done.[1]

Reimu attacks Hong Meiling. The name of Meiling's spell card is shown at the top of the screen.

The game offers two playable characters to choose from, each having two shot types. Reimu Hakurei covers a wide area of the screen with weaker attacks, whereas Marisa Kirisame relies on her speed and power to make up for her thinner attack spread. Each of the bombs perform differently depending on the character and shot type.

Embodiment of Scarlet Devil is the first Touhou game to utilise the Spell Card system – each boss in the game uses various attack phases, called spell cards, all of which are given a name.

In Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, the player can acquire points in various ways. Shooting enemies, and collecting point and power items that they drop on death will increase the number of points. The power items increase the player's shot power, giving it more damage and a larger cone of fire, and when at maximum power, the player can move to the top of the screen to collect all on-screen items at once. Defeating enemy spell cards also grants points, and a further bonus is given if they are completed without dying or using any bombs. Grazing enemy bullets also gives points. Collecting enough points will grant the player extra lives and bombs.

The game consists of six stages, including an Extra Stage, which is unlocked if the player completes all the regular stages without using a continue. On Easy difficulty, the game only has five stages, meaning the player must complete the game on Normal or higher in order to unlock the Extra Stage.

Plot

In Gensokyo's summer, the Scarlet Mist Incident (紅霧異変) occurred. Gensokyo was entirely covered in red mist, which blocked out the sun. It reached Gensokyo's Human Village, and since humans cannot survive in the mist, they were forced to stay in their homes until the incident was resolved.

Reimu Hakurei, felt that it was her duty as a shrine maiden to find the cause of this unnatural weather. Marisa Kirisame hoped that the person responsible for the mist would have some interesting items to collect.

The heroines found their way to the Scarlet Devil Mansion (紅魔館), located in the Misty Lake (霧の湖), where its residents tried to stop the intruders from reaching the lord of the mansion. Upon reaching the mansion, it is revealed that Remilia Scarlet created the mist to block out the sun so that she could feel comfortable during the day, as vampires are weak against the sun. After defeating Remilia, the mist is removed, and the incident concludes. The Scarlet Mist Incident is the first time the spell card rules were used, which popularized their use throughout Gensokyo, and battles from then on also used the spell card rules.

In the Extra Mode, the heroines returned to the Scarlet Devil Mansion during Remilia's absence and found the entire household in chaos. Remilia's younger sister, Flandre Scarlet, was on the loose, while Patchouli Knowledge, the library witch, was trying to keep her from escaping. Meeting the heroines after 495 years of being locked in the basement, Flandre asked that they would play with her, but the heroine fights her instead, to prevent any further incidents.

Setting

The Scarlet Devil Mansion, which features in stage-3 and beyond, is a western mansion located at the bottom of Yōkai Mountain on a causeway of the Misty Lake. It is entirely scarlet in color, as is the road that leads to it. It has a clock tower, which rings only at midnight. The head of this mansion is Remilia Scarlet, but since she is a child, Sakuya Izayoi is in charge. The gatekeeper is Hong Meiling, who intercepts fairies that come from the lake. Flandre Scarlet is also in here, as well as a great number of fairy maids who feature as regular stage enemies. Sakuya manipulates the space inside to make it seem larger than it actually is.

Characters

Playable characters:

  • Reimu Hakurei — The miko of the Hakurei Shrine. Her two modes of attack in this game are homing amulets and needles.
  • Marisa Kirisame — An ordinary magician. Her two modes of attack in the game are magic missiles and lasers.

Boss characters:

  • Rumia (ルーミア, Rūmia) — Stage one mid-boss and main boss. She is a yōkai who has the physical appearance of a young girl. She has blond hair, red eyes, wears black clothing, and her hair is wrapped in a red ribbon.[2] This ribbon is an ofuda, and Rumia herself cannot touch it. Her ability is to create a sphere of night around her, but as it impedes her own vision significantly, it is not useful in combat. She usually spends her days fluttering around aimlessly.
  • Daiyousei (大妖精, Daiyōsei) — Stage two mid-boss. A character who received no profile in the game; fans named her Daiyousei (lit. "Big/Great Fairy"). ZUN later attributed her as bright, playful, and full of expressions. Sometimes appears in dōjinshi with Cirno.[3]
  • Cirno (チルノ, Chiruno) — Stage two boss, attacks with icicles. A leader of the fairies of the Misty Lake, but is not very bright. Her hobby is freezing frogs and watching them revive as they thaw, but she tends to shatter them instead by accident. She radiates cold air year-round, and can stay awake all year long.
  • Hong Meirin (紅 美鈴, Hon Meirin, alternate spelling Hong Meiling) — Stage three mid-boss and main boss, a Chinese-looking yōkai acting as gate keeper of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. She is known to be a very humanoid yōkai who practices martial arts, but is generally friendly towards humans. She is often referred to as "Chūgoku" (China) by Japanese fans.
  • Koakuma (小悪魔) — Stage four mid-boss. Similar to Daiyousei, she received no character profile in the game and was named Koakuma (lit. "Little Devil") by fans. ZUN later described her to be like Daiyousei — whimsical, enjoys pranks, and doesn't think before acting. He also added that while devils are as powerful as vampires and magicians, Koakuma is a rather weak one, therefore, she is a Koakuma (Little Devil).[3]
  • Patchouli Knowledge (パチュリー・ノーレッジ, Pachurī Nōrejji) — Stage four boss and Extra Stage mid-boss. A scholar who is a friend of Remilia Scarlet, holing herself in the library of Remilia's mansion and becoming the de facto librarian. She has command over the seven elements (which the Japanese days of the week are named after, making her the "One-week Wizard") and is in theory an extremely powerful magician. However, her constitution is very poor and asthma often prevents her from reciting her spells. She has a tenuous relationship with Marisa, who tends to carry off her books without asking.
  • Sakuya Izayoi (十六夜 咲夜, Izayoi Sakuya) — Stage five boss and stage six mid-boss. The head maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, armed with throwing knives and the ability to stop time. Sakuya is the only human living in the Scarlet Devil Mansion.[2][4] She was not born in Gensokyo, and the name "Sakuya Izayoi" was given to her by Remilia Scarlet.
  • Remilia Scarlet (レミリア・スカーレット, Remiria Sukāretto) — Final boss, the mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. A vampire who controls fate, but is weak against sun and rain. She claims to be descended from Vlad III Dracula, although she is not.[5] She is known as the Scarlet Devil as when she feeds, the blood of her victims stains her dress red. Despite being over five hundred years old, she often acts in a childish manner. She has a good relationship with her many employees (including Sakuya and Meirin). Reimu is one of the few humans who tolerates her, and Remilia seems quite fond of her in turn. Marisa also gets along with her in exchange for access to her library. She prefers melee fighting to danmaku, but when she does resort to the latter, she is fond of red round bullets and knives.
  • Flandre Scarlet (フランドール・スカーレット, Furandōru Sukāretto) — Extra Stage boss. Remilia's little sister, she has been shut in the basement for 495 years because of her destructive powers. Despite this, she likes her sister and doesn't usually try to escape. Most vampires hold back somewhat when fighting humans, as they plan to keep them alive and feed from them later, but Flandre was always fed prepared dishes and does not know her food comes from humans.

Other:

  • Rin Satsuki (冴月 麟, Satsuki Rin) is a scrapped character associated with a portrait used to advertise Embodiment of Scarlet Devil at Comiket.

Development

In the four years since Mystic Square, the previous Touhou installment, ZUN branched off from Amusement Makers and established his own dōjin circle, Team Shanghai Alice, of which he was the sole developer. As EoSD would be the first release of Team Shanghai Alice and the first game made for a Windows audience, ZUN felt that the game would need to leave an impression. This resulted in EoSD's Western theme, unlike most other games in the Touhou Project which have a more oriental theme.[6]

The Spell Card system, featured in every Touhou game since EoSD, was created by ZUN in 1999 while working on Seihou, and was intended to be a means to identify bullet patterns with names as well as adding depth to his characters. ZUN further stated that EoSD itself was created for the purpose of introducing this system.[7]

EoSD is also the first time ZUN programmed a Windows application from scratch. As he was more familiar with APIs and DirectX and was relatively unfamiliar with the application level, a lot of time was put into creating libraries and tools for EoSD. As a result, little time remained to improve the game's presentation, and ZUN resolved to improve the next game in that regard.[8]

The game's soundtrack was originally composed for the Roland SC-88 Pro sound module. The soundtrack was arranged and re-recorded using the Roland Edirol SD-90 before the game was released.[9] The original version of the soundtrack is still included with the game in the form of SC-88 Pro compatible MIDI files.

Though there has been intent to release Embodiment of Scarlet Devil on Steam, due to a glitch, when running the game in fullscreen on Windows 10, the frame rate does not have a limit, causing the game to move at such a speed that it is unplayable. Fan patches have since been released, but ZUN said that he was not able to fix the issue himself, as he has lost the source code.[10]

Reception

Speaking in 2013, ZUN said that Embodiment of Scarlet Devil was the overall best selling Touhou game.[11] On GameSpot, the game has an average score of 8.5/10.[12]

In annual polls conducted by the Japanese Touhou Wiki, Embodiment of Scarlet Devil has been voted the most popular game each year since 2016.[13][14][15][16][17]

References
  1. Touhou Koumakyou ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil omake - Capturing and Hints
  2. Page in Perfect Memento in Strict Sense related to the relevant character.
  3. そそ, ZUN's diary via webarchives. 2004-1-12.
  4. 『三月精 第2部』「上海アリス通信 三精版 第5号」（『月刊コンプエース』Vol.7 p.275。実質的には「第6号」なのだが誤植で「第5号」になっている。単行本未収録）。
  5. Touhou Koumakyou ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil omake - Music Comments
  6. "神主ZUN、『風神録』についてかく話りき！", Chara Mel, Ichijinsha, p. 111, 2007-11-10
  7. 「システム」「スペルカードボーナス」, 幻想掲示板 (ZUN's guestbook) via webarchives. 2002-11.
  8. ZUN, "Shanghai Alice Correspondence Vol.1" Archived 2010-11-15 at the Wayback Machine. Embodiment of Scarlet Devil Afterword. 2002-8-11.
  9. https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/ZUN%27s_reply_to_messages_on_the_former_Gensou_Bulletin_Board_1
  10. Yokoyama, Keiichi. "東方ProjectのWindows向け1作目『東方紅魔郷』Steam版はリリースが難しい。ソースコードがないため". Automaton Media.
  11. Szczepaniak, John. The Untold History of Japanese Video Game Developers. p. 373.
  12. "Touhou Koumakyou: Embodiment of Scarlet Devil". GameSpot.
  13. "第12回 東方Project 人気投票". toho-vote.
  14. "第13回 東方Project 人気投票". toho-vote.
  15. "第14回 東方Project 人気投票". toho-vote.
  16. "第15回 東方Project 人気投票". toho-vote.
  17. "第16回 東方Project 人気投票". toho-vote.
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